# About

Some drum loops created on my homemade modular synthesizer.

For more info about my synthesizer, check out https://chrisbeckstrom.com

Check out my music at https://chrisbeckstrom.bandcamp.com

To get started making your own sound-making circuits, I have a getting started guide here: https://chrisbeckstrom.com/2019/11/15/getting-started-in-synth-diy-first-steps/


# Patch notes

All sequencing was done using Tidalcycles, which sent MIDI out to the wonderful `ttymidi` program, which converted MIDI to serial so an arduino could spit out voltages based on the MIDI notes. Those voltages (short pulses) were routed into my modular synth. They triggered various things, including

- 40106 + 4069 photoresistor-controlled cmos waveshaper sine oscillator (the kick drum sound)
- A 16-bit Finonacci Linear Feedback Shift Register, which is a very fancy way of sayiung "an analog circuit that creates 'digital-sounding noise' that can be clocked/controlled with CV". This module is usually the source of the short bursts of noise. Sometimes the noise sounds much darker and gritty - that's when the "clock" controlling the noise oscillator is slower
- A "cmos noise" module that is similar to the cymbal circuit on a TR-808, but much, much nastier and weirder
- Some 40106 saw and square VCO's
- 2 diode-based logic VCA's
- lots of photoresistor-based VCA/low pass gates
- I don't really have any envelope generators that work well, so I used a 10 step sequencer (4017 chip) to modulate the kick drum's pitch

(the numbers like 40106 correspond to the names of specific analog electronic chips which are the primary parts of most of my sound-making circuits.)

Usually the path for each voice went something like:

pulse -> VCA
modulators -> oscillators-> VCA
VCA -> mixer -> EQ -> reverb -> computer

All sounds were routed into a small Mackie analog mixer and EQ'd to taste. Most of the time I used reverb, either an Alesis Microverb II (digital) or a spring reverb unit I took out of my Hammond M100 organ (analog).

And all that background noise/crosstalk/distortion? It's not a bug, it's a feature :-)


# License

Use these sounds in whatever way you'd like, just please credit me (Chris Beckstrom).

These sounds are licensed as "Creative Commons Attribution" aka "CC BY":


> This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

More info: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I hope you find these sounds useful and/or inspiring!

- Chris Beckstrom

February, 2021

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